Columnist salaries

Brill's Content: Loved it. But way specialized audience, totally usurpable by the Web. Which Romenesko's site has kind of done. Without, of course, active reporting into the business' issues.

 

By the way, regarding the actual topic of this thread:

Can someone explain why -- given the panic in this business -- any paper would pay a huge premium for a columnist, sports or otherwise? I know all about the personality-driven arguments. But who are they bidding against, in most cases? Lots of one-newspaper markets now. In some two-paper (or more) markets, none of them is trying to swipe the other guys' stars; in fact, many are cutting jobs overall anyway. And I can't think of any big names who have turned down overtures from ESPN.com to stay with the local fishwrap -- and even if ESPN.com came calling for your star, why would you pay through the nose when that's not your direct competition?

I can see paying a columnist a reasonable amount more if he or she is one of the best writers on your staff and serves as some sort of leader among the writers. But to pay 50 percent more or 100 percent more than your NFL or MLB beat guys? Doesn't make sense to me.

What, exactly, are their alternative job options if they don't get the premium pay from their current paper? And since most of them "serve" at the pleasure of the editor, why aren't they presented with this choice: Keep writing your column at your modest pay premium or go back to pounding a pro/college beat? What, really, is the person going to do in today's business climate?

 

Answer: Books.

 

I think a lot of guys got significant raises during the first Internet boom in 1999-2000 when Fox Sports and CNN/SI were hiring or trying to hire a lot of people away. Both columnists at the paper where I was at the time got nice salary bumps to stay, one had actually gotten an offer and the other was a preemptive strike to keep him from looking around.

Other guys have gotten bumps to keep them from going to ESPN full-time. Considering the money ESPN has been throwing around, papers who want to keep their main columnist have really had to ante up or essentially agree to let the columnist do as much TV/radio/freelance as they want.

 

If Mr. FoF shows up here, he might shed some light on this side of the border.

I would imagine somebody like Damien Cox at the Star or Stephen Brunt at the Globe make $150-$200k. But that's just a guess. Maybe more.

I know when Black started up the National Post, he threw scads of money at people like Roy MacGregor and Christie Blatchford.